Tag: Nick Thomas-Symonds

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nick Thomas-Symonds on 2015-11-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions he has had with clinical commissioning groups on commissioning of off-patent drugs for use in new indications.

George Freeman

NHS England supports the national commissioning system in England, including the provision of guidance to the service, where appropriate.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) does not routinely appraise drugs outside their licensed indications. Where drugs are not appraised by NICE, it is the responsibility of clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) to decide how drugs should be funded locally, in line with any guidance from NHS England. The Department has produced no guidance and had no discussions with CCGs on off-label drug use.

Many thousands of patients benefit from the use of off-patent drugs, off-label, every day in the National Health Service. NICE publishes Evidence Summaries on unlicensed and off-label medicines. These provide a summary of the published evidence for selected unlicensed or off-label medicines that are considered to be of significance to the NHS, usually when there is no licensed medicine for the condition requiring treatment or no licensed medicines are appropriate for a significant proportion of people requiring treatment.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nick Thomas-Symonds on 2016-03-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of the minimum income floor on levels of relative child poverty.

Priti Patel

The Government is committed to eliminating child poverty and improving life chances for children. The objective of the Minimum Income Floor is to incentivise work and thereby raise the incomes of families and reduce dependency on benefits. Work remains the best route out of poverty and Universal Credit is designed to strengthen incentives for parents to move into and progress in work. Evidence shows claimants move into work significantly faster and earn more than under the legacy system. In addition, from April 2016 Universal Credit provides for 85% of childcare costs meaning more support for hardworking families.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nick Thomas-Symonds on 2016-05-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Health and Safety Executive’s effectiveness strategy on reducing deaths from work-related respiratory illnesses.

Justin Tomlinson

HSE regularly reviews the implementation of its strategies – including the new strategy for the health and safety system – and reports the findings in its annual report. HSE’s latest annual report is available at: http://www.hse.gov.uk/aboutus/reports/ara-2014-15.pdf

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nick Thomas-Symonds on 2015-11-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent representations he has received from (a) the Council of Europe, (b) the UN and (c) other international bodies on the UK’s membership of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Dominic Raab

We have received no such formal representation. Ministry of Justice Ministers have met the Secretary General of the Council of Europe Jagland, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid, and the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence de Greiff.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nick Thomas-Symonds on 2016-03-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment his Department has made of the effect of universal credit on the number of children in relative poverty.

Priti Patel

The Government is committed to eliminating child poverty and improving life chances for children. We know that work is the best route out of poverty, and Universal Credit is designed to strengthen incentives for parents to move into and progress in work. Evidence shows claimants move into work significantly faster and earn more than under the current system. In addition, from April 2016 Universal Credit provides for 85% of childcare costs meaning more support for hardworking families.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nick Thomas-Symonds on 2016-05-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of funding for workplace inspections by the Health and Safety Executive in the next four years.

Justin Tomlinson

HSE’s Spending Review 15 funding is based upon achieving growth in commercial income and delivery of planned efficiency savings which will enable HSE to seek to maintain current levels of its core regulatory activities including workplace inspections over the next four years.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nick Thomas-Symonds on 2015-11-30.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what proportion of the science budget in the period from 2010 to 2014 was spent on neurological research.

Joseph Johnson

The information is not available in the form requested, however the UK Health Research Analysis 2014 (published by UK Clinical Research Collaboration, 2015) shows that in 2014 combined UK government expenditure on neurological research, including spend from the Research Councils and Devolved Administrations, was £131 million. This accounted for around 11 per cent of the total £1.2 billion government spend reported across all areas of health research in the period. The report is available at www.hrcsonline.net/pages/uk-health-research-analysis-2014.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nick Thomas-Symonds on 2016-03-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the total cost was of transferring the services previously provided by the General Social Care Council (GSCC) to the Health and Care Professions Council after the GSCC was abolished in 2012.

Alistair Burt

The function for the regulation of social workers in England was transferred from the General Social Care Council (GSCC) to the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) on 1 August 2012.

The final set of accounts from the GSCC show that the total cost to the public purse of closing down the Council was £16.5 million. The HCPC also received £1.4 million to support it take on the functions for the regulation of social workers in England. Therefore, the total cost was £17.9 million.

On the assumption that the costs of the GSCC remained broadly similar, the Department estimated that the closure of the GSCC saves £13.5 million each year.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nick Thomas-Symonds on 2016-05-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of the annual societal costs of occupational cancer.

Justin Tomlinson

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has carried out research on the total societal costs of new cases of work-related cancer diagnosed in Britain. This research is due to be published later this year.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nick Thomas-Symonds on 2015-11-30.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the survey published in November 2015 by Cancer Research UK which found that only 19 per cent of women aged from 50 to 64 were aware that the main purpose of the national cervical screening programme is to prevent cervical cancer.

Jane Ellison

NHS Screening Programmes are committed to giving people information to support them to make an informed choice about whether or not to take up the offer of screening. There is a group dedicated to researching, developing and evaluating information for those invited for screening, and service users and providers are involved at all stages.

The NHS Screening Programmes aim to provide clarity in the leaflets and information given to people.

The NHS Screening Programmes will continue to work closely with voluntary sector groups like Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust and with NHS Choices to help raise awareness of the intentions of the programmes.